Yeah, Goblez and I were discussing the matter over Twitter, as my original draft of that post was going to say all stores don't charge international customers the tax anyway, but then I looked at AmiAmi for verification...

I'm not certain, but I believe AmiAmi is part of the minority to charge us their taxes. Continuing to use Zangetsu as the illustration, here are other sites and their default prices:

Anime-Export (no tax): http://www.anime-export.com/product/18414
CS Toys (no tax, no Zangetsu): http://www.cstoysjapan.com/servlet/t...r-Agito/Detail
YesAsia (awful price either way): http://www.yesasia.com/us/s-h-figuar...0-en/info.html
Japan-Toys (tax): http://www.japan-toys.com/cgi-bin/us...gi?id=CHO-2176

Granted, including the tax doesn't make AmiAmi inherently less competitive, but it is an interesting factor to note when comparing prices between the import stores of choice. Whether or not a portion of an item's cost is allocated to a sales tax, what matters in the end is what we as international customers end up paying, and the 3% increase may or may not affect us with future items.

This would also mean my earlier point about Bluefin having an advantage by not charging taxes technically incorrect in most cases - but that's okay, buying from a Bluefin-supplied retailer has its own advantages and disadvantages.

well Amiami put this up